Fairytale
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: These deaths are no fairytales. -Sasuke, Sakura. For SasuSaku Month 2012
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Cinderella

**Summary:** These deaths are no fairytales.

**Prompt:** July 2nd / Hostage

**Warnings: **Death, AU universe

**Note: **This whole set is a big experimental piece—I've been reading too much Gotham Central. Having said that, you'd think this series would be better because of that, but it's not. If I were a better artist, this would be drawn instead. I'll just have to try and paint with words and hope it comes out right.

...

...

...

She's only taken a sip from her mug when he drops the file on her desk. Thin and obviously new, she only has to look at the date scrawled on it to know the case opened a few weeks ago.

"No one else is on it?"

A snort sounds above her, her partner clearly not in the mood for talking now. She takes the bait anyway and looks up at him. "I thought you were still in trouble."

His right eye's still bruised from the fight, a dark and angry shade of purple. It's healing nicely, better than the guy who's sitting in his cell now, and she has to remind herself there was another way he could have handled it. "We're short on men and there are too many cases."

"The eye still hurt?" She flips open the file, skims the small report on a missing teen. Barely sixteen, she disappeared late Friday evening. A candid shot of her and her best friend lies on the top of the file, over the interviews with her parents and friends.

Blonde, blue-eyed, a care-free smile on her lips. Her hand stretches out to almost block the shot, her friend pushing it out of the way just on time. There's a secret in her eyes and Sakura wonders if that's why she's in this folder and not at home.

Sasuke doesn't answer the question and instead drinks from her cup, ignoring her dark scowl as he gulps half of her coffee. It's boiling hot and she doesn't resist the grin at the twist his face makes after.

"Nice. You'd better refill it." She closes the file. "Is there a new lead?"

There's something tense in the way he sets down the mug, in the way his jaw clenches. Tense and she knows the answer before he says it. "She was found this morning."

He looks away, his profile a hard line. Hesitantly, she lifts her hand, almost stretching it to him before setting it down once more.

It's the murder cases that break him.

-x-

There is nothing impersonal about this death.

Sakura crouches in front of the girl, taking in her carefully positioned body. Lying on the brown dirt, her legs are hidden in the blue ruffles of her dress. Only her feet are visible, one glass slipper dangling off a foot. The other lies in her hand, her painted nails curled around the heel. A crown lies on her head and long white gloves peek out of purse beside her.

It's a familiar scene, her blonde hair splayed around her as she runs away. Even a small clock is sitting on the floor, stopped forever at midnight.

"She's Cinderella," she mutters. The forensics team didn't see any footprints in the pumpkin patch she was found in, other than the farmer who found her in the morning. Her gloved hand reaches out, inspecting the bare feet and finger nails for any sign of where she died.

"He found her at six." It seems Sasuke's interrogation of the farmer was useless. "He left the fields at eight yesterday, so it gives a ten hour window. Less if they waited for the farmer to sleep."

"She didn't die here, but I can't find anything on her." Sakura sighs, getting up. "He clearly hid his footprints" she points at the smoothly brushed dirt that leads to the edge of the field, "and there's nothing else on her."

She looks down the girl, her mouth forever closed. There were no signs of struggle, no marks on her skin to indicate ropes or a bludgeon to the head. It was probably poison that did her in.

"This'll probably happen again. We'll have to look at those missing people cases. No one puts this kind of effort into a one-time..."

He nods, even as her voice dies out. She looks down at the girl, at the smile painted on her lips, and wonders how many of those girls are already dead and waiting to be found.


	2. Clandestine

**Title:** Clandestine

**Prompt:** July 26th / Loss

**Note:** I'm rather happy with this piece.

**Summary:** _This is intimate and of what she witnesses she can never tell._

...

...

...

She sits in the car, staring at the house for a good five minutes before she finally unbuckles her belt.

"I'll tell her."

Not like there was much choice in the first place. Sasuke is incapable of handling situations like these, despite his own first-hand experience. Swallowing, she steps out and onto the sidewalk, trotting up the short path to the door.

A quick rap and she buries her hands in her pocket, shivering slightly despite the warm breeze. Inside, she can hear the distant sounds of footsteps and yelling before the door quickly opens and a harried woman looks out at her.

"Hello?"

It's an awkward moment and she brushes it off with a short smile. "I'm from the Konoha police department. I'm here about your daughter."

For the briefest moment, there is a flicker of hope on that face. It passes when she notices how quiet Sakura is, the lack of daughter behind her. Suddenly the mother looks older, more tired, as though each stain on her apron and the ladle in her hand is too heavy for her to bear.

"Oh." The mother moves back, out of the way and leaving the front hallway empty. "Come in."

-x-

Of what goes on in that room, of what words were spoken, Sakura could never tell. Not even to Sasuke. It's impossible to repeat the sobriety of the scene, the quiet that pervaded each pore until she felt like an onlooker to the scene.

It's a very intimate knowledge she has, to be privy to someone's grief. There's vulnerability and anger and a hollow understanding that your world is one less now. An almost perverse feeling overcomes her, for this is not something she should be witness to.

She leaves the house with the taste of smoke and salt on her tongue.

-x-

It's dark when she emerges from the house, her notes in her hand. The moon is hidden and for once she's glad for the cigarette that hangs limply in Sasuke's hand. Glowing a faint red, she can almost make out his face as he leans against the car, his hand raised to take another drag.

"She didn't add much." Her voice sounds stronger than she feels. Death is something she can face, something she has faced, but not this. Not the ragged gasp of life, the single wail of death that comes from the survivors.

"They found another body."

She starts at that, staring up at him. He remains silent, exhaling softly. A stream of smoke escapes his lips.

"There's also a tip of where a third is."

Gritting her teeth, she turns away. There's no time to waste. "You drive."

Before she can get in the car, he drops a hand on her shoulder. Gripping her shoulder firmly, it anchors her. She relaxes slightly and closes her eyes.

These moments were private in a different way.

"Let's get the bastard. I'm not doing this again."


	3. Art

**Title:** Art

**Prompt:** July 19th / Messenger

**Note:** Kind of a filler chapter. I'm experimenting here, so I'm afraid this drabble might not be as good as I hoped. The ending is kind of incomplete, at least that's the feeling it gives me.

**Summary:** _It's crime so much as it is art._

...

...

...

The second girl is younger than the first, much younger. There is a flush of youth in her plump cheeks, in the smooth planes of her skin. Her short black hair curls around her face as she sits under the apple tree, her legs tucked neatly beneath her as she leans against the trunk.

"She's Snow White." An apple sits in her hand, poison dripping from it into the evidence bag and Sasuke opens the picnic basic beside her.

"More apples." He snaps it shut and grimaces.

A small hand rests near the wicker basket and she looks impossibly young. Eight, nine, she couldn't be older than ten.

Could never be older than ten, now.

"How does he find them? Does he just pick them up off the streets or take them from their homes?" Such a little girl. It hits her harder than the first victim did. The girl looks so fragile, her eyes closed in an eternal slumber.

The apple rolls around in her bag, warning of the witch in the shadows.

-x-

There are only pictures of where the body was originally found. Her feet were tied together, chained down in iron, and, unlike the others, there is fear in her face. Fear and death as she trashed and drowned at the bottom of an aquarium.

"He must have called."

Sasuke looks at her, his hands neatly organizing the pictures as he does so.

"If she stayed down there too long, it wouldn't look the way he wanted. He was the tip."

"That's sloppy."

She snorts, pointing at the pictures. "This is 'art' to him. Why else the effort? He wants it to be seen."

There's a dark smile on his face now, one she doesn't like but is becoming accustomed to. "Still sloppy. That means he'll make mistakes."

"Then we'll catch him."

The smile grows broader. She tries not to shiver at the implication behind it. At what will happen after they catch him.


End file.
